On Sept. 30, 2009, The Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) of the AFL-CIO, a coalition of Native American Indian tribal councils, and 12 national and international unions launched the Native Construction Careers Institute (NCCI), a training partnership that will help members of Native American tribes launch careers in construction. A national effort, the NCCI evolved from a highly successful pilot program that was implemented on several reservations as a way to combat widespread unemployment.
“We began to realize some years ago that [the tribes] have an untapped human resource, and we noticed that there was a tremendous amount of economic development going on in and around Indian country,” says Conrad Edwards, co-chair of the NCCI, president of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights (CTER), and a member of the Colville Tribe. Depending on the reservation and the time of year, tribal unemployment rates can run as high as 80 percent, according to Edwards.
Understanding that construction is the largest industry and offers the most employment opportunities on and around reservations, CTER and the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) developed a pilot initiative to conduct on-the-job training in construction trades to tribal members by forging partnerships between individual tribes and construction unions, because “[unions] have the most cost-effective education programs under certified conditions,” Edwards says.
Every training effort under the pilot initiative was an unqualified success, resulting in 100 percent completion rates and 100 percent job placement rates for participants as well as increasing tribal assets through the improvements or new buildings that trainees worked on. Several graduates of the pilot training programs also have gone on to form their own contracting companies, bidding on and winning contracts on reservations.
“That’s the element that’s missing from tribal development: entrepreneurs,” Edwards says. “We’re striking at job creation and the unemployment problem.”
The formation of the NCCI marks the first formal partnership between unions, tribes, and tribal organizations. Its goals are fourfold: to prepare Native American Indians for long-term careers in construction, to increase union membership, to increase construction projects operating under Tribal Labor Agreements (TLA) between unions and tribes, and to maximize the number of Indians working on construction projects on such projects. Key to the agreement are the TLAs, under which the construction unions officially recognize tribal sovereignty on reservations.
NCCI training program content depends on an individual tribe’s construction needs. Partner organizations deliver hands-on training in general construction and contract bidding, as well as safety and employment requirements. Once NCCI is authorized by a tribe to bring a training program to its reservation, the organization works with the tribe to identify a building project to use for training, establish a budget, and coordinate schedules. During the pilot, projects ranged from housing units to commercial offices and community buildings on reservations. Upon completion, the training union issues graduates certificates for the skill sets they’ve mastered.
Participating in the NCCI’s training programs gives those living on reservations an advantage in seeking work in one of the construction trades and gives them the opportunity to join one of the participating trade unions as an advanced apprentice, which would provide better health and other benefits than those provided by the federal government, according to Bob Krul, special assistant to BCTD’s president and one of the primary proponents of formalizing the pilot program.
The NCCI will be co-chaired by Edwards and Mark H. Ayers, president of BCTD. Twelve tribal leaders, along with the general president of the 12 national and international construction trade unions that have signed the NCCI charter, will serve as the organization’s board of directors.
